The two companies won the three-year project after combining TNS's food and super panels with Information Resources' data samples.
TNS super panel, which consists of 15,000 people, will measure purchasing and the 11,000-strong food panel will measure consumption. The food panel, unique to TNS, is believed to be the reason the group won the pitch over Nielsen's homescan panel.
Pat Thomas, marketing controller for consumer insight and innovation at Premier, said: "As one of the country's leading food manufacturers, it is essential that we fully understand our consumers -- the combined offering from Information Resources and TNS promises to provide us with the most accurate and insightful knowledge to support our business."
TNS and Information Resources are currently finalising project plans to start in January 2005.
The project will involve the research all of Premier Food's brands including Typhoo tea, Branston Pickle, Cadbury's drinking chocolate and Ambrosia custard and desserts. Premier Foods is one of the UK's leading food companies with a turnover of £774m last year. More than 90% of UK households buy Premier Foods brands every year.
Market information group TNS operates in more than 70 countries worldwide and employes around 14,000 full-time staff.
Information Resources has operations in the US, Latin America and countries across Europe and has undertaken research for global brands including Colgate-Palmolive, Gillette, GlaxoSmithKline and Heinz.
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